A North Carolina boarding school that the Biden administration intended to turn into a massive holding facility for unaccompanied immigrant children has yet to receive a single child from the southern border nearly six months after it was supposed to open.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families confirmed to the Washington Examiner that the 100-acre property has sat empty since the start date of a $166 million government contract on May 19, according to a copy of the agreement. That contract is poised to end in two weeks, potentially never having been used.
HHS did not disclose if it will have to pay a portion of or all of either contract.
“Two contracts were issued — a lease for the Academy, but that has become an issue because a Chinese company bought the facility after that contract was issued. Second, HHS issued a contract to Deployed Services for the childcare services,” said a source with knowledge of the contracting difficulties.
The Deployed Services contract was put on hold due to a dispute between those involved. HHS did not confirm the details of the dispute or if a Chinese company was involved.
DHS HAS NOT PROVIDED REPUBLICANS WITH PLAN TO END BORDER CRISIS AFTER 15 REQUESTS
The Washington Examiner had reported in May 2021 of the Biden administration’s plans to use the school campus to house children. The delay would have cut short HHS’s available bed space for 800 children who were to be held in Greensboro on a daily basis, placing a greater burden on other HHS childcare facilities nationwide.
Mexican cartels are responsible for smuggling children who are typically sent north by their parents. Although children are first encountered on the border by federal agents from the Border Patrol, they are turned over to HHS for care. Most children are detained for 30 days as the government searches for an adult in the United States who can take custody of the child.
HHS’s ACF had quietly signed a five-year contract with the American Hebrew Academy in Greensboro that allowed the federal government to take over the campus into 2027. HHS offered contractor Deployed Services a $166 million contract for childcare services.
Republicans were furious about the plan earlier this year, pointing to comments that HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra had made in May 2021 that “there is no plan” to shelter immigrant children in Greensboro.
Republican members of Congress from across the state balked at the plan to house children in a residential neighborhood.
“Due to the failures of the Biden administration to secure our southern border, every state, including North Carolina, is now suffering from the impacts of the Biden border crisis,” wrote the eight lawmakers. “The decision to now resettle [unaccompanied immigrant children] in Greensboro directly contradicts what you said previously and comes as a complete surprise to us and our constituencies.”
The Republicans who signed on to Rep. Richard Hudson’s letter are North Carolina Reps. Ted Budd, Virginia Foxx, David Rouzer, Madison Cawthorn, Greg Murphy, Patrick McHenry, and Dan Bishop.
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In February 2021, the Biden administration chose to stop turning away children without guardians despite a pandemic policy that mandated it. As a result, more than 18,000 children showed up at the U.S.-Mexico border in March 2021, the most recorded in a single month. A child’s family pays the cartels several thousands of dollars to smuggle the child to and across the border.
